Hokudai campus hanami

Oh boy, do I have pictures to share! Brace yourself, posts are coming!

Last weekend, we spent Saturday afternoon at a hanami party at the university. Kevin's department had a BBQ between the wings of their lab under two amazingly gorgeous cherry trees. 

The variety in the pictures before were called Somei Yoshino and are the early variety. The ones blooming now are the later variety Yaezakura. Personally, I find this latter variety more beautiful since the blooms are layered like roses and the color is more intense. To read more about cherry blossoms and varieties, click here.

We were told Sapporo and Hokkaido isn't the best for cherry blossoms and I guess, maybe compared to other more famous Japanese cities it's true, but I have NOT been disappointed and it's been a beautiful season to experience!

We left the hanami party, to run some errands and enjoy the weather. We stopped at this little pond on the campus for some pictures. 

 This avenue is pretty famous. At least if you google Hokkaido University it pops up. ;)

The campus and this road runs through town so lots of bike traffic coming and going.

Something unexpected and beautiful we've seen has been the Japanese maples in violent shades of crimson red.

Apparently some varieties open their leaves in this color instead of an ordinary green, then turn green for summer, then red again in fall. 

I can only imagine the beauty of fall here!

 

There was this massive weeping cherry tree on the campus too!

Amazing!

 

One of our neighbors shared her hanami experience with us. She rode her bike 300km to Hakodate in Southern Hokkaido and back. Hakodate is a coastal town famed for it's giant fortress and cherry blossoms. But she said, the variety of trees there aren't appealing to her because they look like "kaeru tamago" or frog eggs. What has been seen, cannot be unseen!

 

And yeah, I'm the person who stops in the middle of a sidewalk to crouch for a flower picture. You're not? ;)

Next: Mother's Day: Japan edition

Maruyama Park Hanami

We did our little hanami adventure last Saturday at the famous Maruyama park here in Sapporo.

We knew it'd be a busy park since it's known as one of the better parks for cherry blossom and plum viewing... however, the packed subway train and station gave us a better idea of just how busy... and obviously, we got there and this is what we saw:

Under the assorted and sporadic cherry trees lots of people enjoy their Japanese BBQ. Lots of smoke hanging in the air... and I'm sure you can imagine how delicious it smelt!

It was mainly young people and reminded me of some Finnish celebrations like May Day and Midsummer (juhannus).

We found a spot on the outskirts but close to a big cherry tree and made camp. Kevin made onigiri (rice balls) the night before, so we had lunch and Kevin's friend brought sake that they enjoyed together. It was really nice to people watch and enjoy the action! 

This group above were sitting under the tree we were admiring and cooking yakisoba on their grill. A (news) camera crew ended up coming over and interviewing them and filmed them for a while. 

 

As with any party, there are always (uninvited) onlookers trying to get in on the celebration. ;)

After we ate and drank a little, we went on to the "festival" bit of the park and the shrine. Lots of yummy food vendors!

 

We found the cherry/pllum tree part of the park! 

 

Right before we found our second spot to camp out (this time under the trees in a much better location!), Muffin fell asleep :)

 

The blooms were so intense. It felt like every square inch in your view was covered! 

 

Lots of entertaining people out and about amongst the crowds. Like the bear. :)

We also saw a woman in kimono with a Japanese guitar playing and singing for groups of people. 

 

Kevin and his friends drinking sake and laughing about catching falling petals in their cups. Apparently, it's a thing you do. The petals falling in the breeze is amazingly beautiful by the way!

 

We sat right under where a pink tree met a white one. ♥

 

What a glorious day.

Glorious experience.

Something I'll never forget. :)

 

This week's recap

Wow, this week flew by! 

Just another regular week here. Elisabeth took some great naps earlier (3+ hours!) and I took advantage of my alone time by spending it on pinterest (lol), drinking LOOOOOOOTS of coffee, learning more Japanese, and crocheting!

Highlights of this week:

On Monday, I did laundry. It took LITERALLY ALL DAY to do it. I had two loads going, one without a dry cycle (it's a 2-in-1 machine) and one with. The without one (Kevin's shirts) took a few hours to wash (no friggin' quick cycle?!), and the one with...oh, I don't know. 

Like seriously, I lost count. 

I started it sometime early afternoon, maybe noonish? It wasn't done till like after 6 pm. Oh, but they were still wet... so I split the load and put it into two machines and set the dry cycle. Ummm it went until sometime in the morning when Kevin went and got it. I dread doing laundry now! Every time it's something new with those machines. GRR!

I thought these appliances were supposed to make our lives easier? It really makes me miss my fantastic beautiful 7kg Samsung washer at home, complete with a quick cycle that washes in 1h 6min. It even sings when it's done! ♥ Oh, and our dryer downstairs... ONE hour! ONE! ...sigh, these are just some of those homesick things...

Tuesday...I don't even remember what I did Tuesday. Is that bad?

Wednesday, we went to the grocery store and picked up dinner for a couple nights while Kevin was at school. (Tofu stir fry & beef yakisoba) I love going to the grocery store with a plan. We spend MUCH LESS and get MUCH MORE it seems. What's not to love about that?

Thursday and Friday, we did the usual walk around our closest playground (closer than the one I've shown before), it's just 2 little blocks away. :)

On both days Elisabeth decided I was spoiled with long naps and free time and decided I ought to spend more time getting her to sleep than she actually sleeps. Oh fun! I love to meander around the neighborhood for an hour while she sleeps for 30 min...

Saturday, we went grocery shopping in the morning (and bought a ton of stuff) and then in the afternoon, we went downtown to Bic Camera (which is more than cameras) and then walked to find an H&M near Odori park, then came home and made pork curry donburi again and hung out with our neighbors.
(H&M here has some pretty different stuff than Finland!)

Today, we ate a wonderful Easter breakfast (bacon, eggs & toast) and then took a walk again. It's SUPER warm today, very sunny and for once (!) not windy! Perfect weather for our afternoon/evening which will be the building's BBQ! :) It's in celebration of spring as well as a goodbye and welcome party for neighbors (including us!)!
Sounds like fun to see what a Japanese BBQ party is like! :)

I'm going to try to find time (since it didn't happen this week) to blog about some topics and I've even been taking pictures for them and all. Woot?! I've never been a "planning" blogger before, but my how things change.
Upcoming topics I want to blog about:

• what we bought at the grocery store/grocery store info in general
• our neighborhood and the houses here
• our experiences of traveling with a baby -- a first look (since we're not too far into this yet)

Now here's the fun part... tell me what you want me to blog about! :)
Yes, you!
I will do my best to cover the topic if I can!
Just leave a comment on this post, send me a message on facebook/skype/email or whatever social media you know me from!

Can't wait to hear from you!
(otherwise this blog might be a little...boring if it's just about our day to day walks and laundry debacles!)

Who can tell me what bird is in this photo?
Mikä lintu kuvassa? 

Suomeksi melkein sama: 

Viikon alussa Elisabeth nukkui ihanat pitkät päikkärit (3+ tuntia), jolloin sain aikaseksi blogata, juoda liikaa kahvia, virkata ja oleskella netissä. Ihanaa! Viikko menikin tosi nopeasti ihan vaan kotona ollessa.

Maanantaina pesin pyykkiä. Suomessa se on ehkä lempikotityö, täällä se on ehkä kamalin. Siihen menee KOKO PÄIVÄ, eikä ne pyykit edes kuivu (koneet sekä pesee että kuivaa). Koti-ikävää on eniten kun ajattelee 1) elukat ja 2) Samsung pyykinpesukone ♥

Tiistaita en muista... ööö.

Keskiviikkona mentiin ruokakauppaan Elisabethin kans ja ostettiin parin päivän ruuat. Kauppalistan ateriat olivat tofu-vokki ja naudanliha yakisoba (nuudelijuttu). Tätä ei voi englanniksi ilmaista, mutta aina kun syön seuraavana päivänä lounaaksi edellisen illan tofu-vokkia, tulee sana mieleen: riisipöperö. :D 

Torstai ja perjantai meni siihen, että päivän jatkuva tavoite oli saada tytön unille. Haahuilin ympäri lähikatuja aina tunti kerralla ja neiti nukkui makeat 30 minuuttia. On se kivaa meille kaikille kun 7.30-9.00 välillä on vaan 2-3 päikkäriä ja kaikki kestänyt 30min. :P 

Lauantaina käytiin aamulla ruokaostoksilla (ostettiin paljon kaikkea!) ja iltapäivällä keskustassa shoppailemassa Bic Camerassa (joka ei ole vain kamerakauppa) ja sitten H&M:lle. Jossa siis paljon kaikenlaista mitä Suomessa ei ole. Sitten syötiin possu-curry riisikulhoa ja hengailtiin naapureitten kanssa.

Tänään syötiin pääsiäisaamupalan: pekonia, kananmunia ja paahtoleipää ja sitten mentiin "nukutuslenkille". Nyt se parvekkeella nukkuu ja toivon mukaan nukkuu kauankin! Kerrankin ei tuule ja on ihanan lämmin ja aurikoista!

Iltapäivällä alkaa talon grillijuhlat/läksiäiset/tervetuliaiset (?) ja uskon, että se tulee olemaan tosi hauskaa nähdä millaiset japanilaiset grillikekkerit on! :) 

Toivon mukaan saan aikaa lähipäivänä bloggailla lisää. Aiheeksi olen suunnitellut jo (siis en yleensä näitä postauksia suunnittele):

• mitä ostetaan ruokakaupasta/ruokakaupoista yleensäkin infoa
• naapurustoa ja täkäläisten taloista
• kokemuksemme vauvan kanssa matkustamisesta (näin vähän karkeasti, koska olemme vielä alussa asian kanssa)

Mutta, nyt jotain kivaa! Ehdottakaa ihmeessä minulle aiheita, josta haluatte kuulla lisää! Lupaan tehdä parhaani löytää tietoa ja kertomista asiasta! :) 

Minusta vain vähän tuntuu, että blogista saattaa tulla tylsähkö jos on vain meidän arjesta (päiväunista ja pyykistä). ;)

Laittakaa kommenttia tähän tai viestiä facebookiin/skypeen/s-postiin! 

Saturday: Nakajima park, Susukino & Ramen dinner!

We had a really busy and fun Saturday! 

We decided to take advantage of the great (but cold and windy!) weather and walk to Sapporo station. Things didn't go according to plan, but it was still a great walk! 

We headed North up our street to Horohira bridge. It's really close to our subway stop. The views were amazing, it was a really open spot! They even had a large arch so you can get up higher to really take in the view. 

Definitely beautiful! 

I love that it's mountains as far as the eye can see. So different from home. 

Then we walked on to Nakajima park. If you remember, our hotel was at the north end of this park and we mistakenly meandered through a bit of it on our first day. 

We haven't been back since, so it was nice to really walk through it! 

Signs of spring...

...even though many places look like this...

Nakajima park is home to Kitara, a concert hall. (pictured) There's also the museum of literature. (snooze)

What I liked was the beautiful little pond! In the summer months you can rent little rowboats!

After Nakajima park, we walked north through Susukino and to Tanuki-koji (the shopping street, one of many). We looked at some souvenir stores and took in the smells of the restaurants. By this point, Elisabeth woke up and we were pretty hungry, so we didn't make it to Sapporo station as planned. Instead, we went home for a snacky lunch and made dinner plans! 

 (the photos above are all susukino)

(Tanuki-koji is blocks of this!)

We met our friend on Saturday night for some authentic ramen, Hokkaido style with a miso base. Yummmmmm. It was the biggest bowl ever, piping hot, and so so good. I forgot to take a picture though!! I know, I was bummed after I realized it too! :/ 

Elisabeth even tried some of the ramen noodles, she slurped it like a pro. I was a shy slurper, Kevin was not. We had so much fun and it was really a popular local spot -- always a line, all seats at the bar full. And for only 750 yen a bowl (about $7.50), a real deal too! 

After we ate, we went to the Susukino district downtown, known for party spots and bars. We went to an izakaya, a Japanese bar...with Elisabeth! Hahaha, gotta start 'em young. ;) She wasn't the only kid there though, it was more like a pub in a way. They had some food there too, and we actually sat at the bar (vs a booth) and were able to see into the kitchen and watch them cook. Fun! Kevin tried some Japanese whisky, beer, and sake. I had ginger ale and grapefruit juice. :) 

They actually have deals here where you can drink as much as you want for a set price for a set time (i.e. 1200 yen for 2h) if you also purchase some food. Pretty good idea! (especially to purchase food and not just drink unlimited amounts of alcohol, sounds like that could be trouble!) ;) 

It was the latest we've ever stayed out, we weren't home until just after 10 p.m. Wild and crazy, I know!

It was really fun because we got to see the infamous Susukino at night, on a Saturday. It's really known as the fun drinking part of town so seeing some Japanese nightlife was great! 

We saw this on our walk home from the subway station. We actually had just been talking about how little tagging or graffiti you see here... Then we found this in an underpass tunnel. LOLZ!

Miss Muffin has woken up (after an awesome long nap!), so it's downstairs for some lunch for us! I'll try to be back with yesterdays happenings soon :)

Lauantaina käveltiin keskustaan Nakajima-puiston kautta. Mutta ensin pysähdyimme maisemia ihailemaan Horohira-sillalle. Nakajima-puisto oli sulanut paljon siihen verrattuna mitä sinne viimeksi eksyimme. Varmoja kevään merkkejä oli! Ihastuttava pikku lammikko oli jo sulanut ja kesällä voi ilmeisesti vuokrata pieniä soutuveneitä!
Susukinoon käveltiin seuraavaksi. Oli tarkoitus Sapporo asemalle asti kävellä, mutta matka jäi Tanuki-kojiin,  sillä Elisabeth heräsi ja nälkä oli kaikilla. 
Illalla tapasimme yliopistolta kaveria, joka vei meitä paikalliseen ramen ravintolaan. Nam! Oli iso kulho misopohjaista ramenia, pienen possupalasen ja vihannesten kera. Kuvata unohdin, hupsis!
Ruoan jälkeen mentiin vielä lasilliselle izakayaan, eli japanilaiseen pubiin. Täällä siis kaveri kertoi, että harvemmin japanilaiset baarit ovat sellaisia kuin Suomessa. Täällä pidetään pubi/ruokameineingeistä enemmän kuin pimeessä tanssimisesta ja kovasta musiikista. (veikkaan, että hänen käsitys on tullut Fat Lady opiskelijapippaloista Tampereella ollessa, hehehhehe). 
Täällä erikoista baarikulttuurissa oli se, että voi tiettyyn hintaan juoda niin paljon kuin haluaa tiettynä aikana. Esim 12e 2 tuntia. Mutta sitten siinä tarttis ostaa myös pari ruoka-annosta tms. (jos juo ihan rajattomasti pari tuntia niin suosittelisin jotain muuta sinne mahaan kans, käypä idea!)
Oli kiva nähdä Susukino-aluetta lauantai-iltana, oli meno ja meininki siellä! Tultiin kotiin vasta klo 22 jälkeen, mikä on myöhässä meille!!!!! :O 
Oli hauskaa! :)